Solar energy wasn’t exactly on Seth Long’s radar, until he really crunched the numbers for HOMES, Inc., the nonprofit housing developer he leads in the rural coalfields of southeastern Kentucky. Whatever skepticism he had all but vanished once he realized the organization would come out ahead, even without a grant or a tax credit. 

“The spreadsheets said there was a return on investment if we converted to solar energy,” Long said. “So we did that and immediately it performed even better than what was calculated. I was way ahead with expenses and that kind of opened my eyes.”

Once he realized the potential for energy savings, Long applied for and received a USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant to install solar at his farm, which produces maple syrup. And he worked with the Mountain Association, a community economic development organization in eastern Kentucky, to coordinate solar installation training for Clayton “Fuzz” Johnson, an electrician employed by HOMES, Inc. 

As a developer of efficient, affordable, high-quality homes primarily for low-income individuals in an area where Long describes the housing market as “broken,” he understood that building homes with solar arrays could greatly reduce the financial burden of homeownership. What good, he wondered, was owning a home if the homeowner couldn’t afford the electric bill?

“This community desperately needs it. We’re in a depressed region and people are trying to get by.  So, if we can save people money, that makes sense. We’ve learned something here,” he said of the journey HOMES Inc. took through his own solar curiosity. 

Installing solar would expand the HOMES, Inc. service line and reduce the energy burden for the people the organization serves. And by installing the solar themselves, instead of outsourcing it to another company, HOMES Inc. could reduce costs and have more control over the timing of the project.

The cost of training for Johnson was covered by the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization initiative, known as POWER. That initiative invests federal workforce development and financial resources into communities that have been negatively impacted by the transition away from coal. 

POWER was created by the Obama Administration and has been implemented by several agencies since, including the U.S. Economic Development Administration through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). ARC awarded more than $68 million to 65 projects in October of 2024 alone. Mountain Association’s New Energy Internship, through which Johnson received his training, was funded via POWER. 

HOMES Inc. does more than build homes. It also does recovery work, which is where the organization was forced to focus following catastrophic floods that hit the region in 2022. The rebuilding process offered HOMES Inc. a proving ground of sorts to demonstrate the ease with which it was to build a net-zero home if the organization handled the entire project itself — without outside solar contractors. 

“It cost $60,000 to get to net-zero traditionally, but we’re demonstrating that you can get there quicker if you have the expertise within your wheelhouse,” he said. 

By training that one employee, HOMES Inc. is able to have him oversee solar installation projects, bringing in another source of income for the nonprofit. Right now, Long said the organization is working on a solar project just about every day. 

“I call it the solar tsunami. There’s a lot of money coming from the Department of Energy for solar. One of my fears of being on the ground is there’s more money than capable installers. When their Solar for All funding comes down, there won’t be time to ramp up. You can’t build a business for capacity overnight. Now, when that money hits, it’ll be ‘How much can we do?’” Long said.

When Long looks back at the 2022 flooding, he can’t help but appreciate the opportunity it presented HOMES Inc. to illustrate — in practice — how a net-zero home could benefit those living in it. 

“In every crisis there is opportunity. Even with the dilemma of the loss of the coal industry, we’re still in the mountains doing energy work, it just looks different today,” he said. “And with the flood, it was a huge crisis but out of it came opportunities to experiment and apply what we’ve learned to affordable housing. That will go a long way.”